mo says the key to moving is downsizing. we have too much stuff, she says. throw it out. pare down. essentials only.

i suggest that’s unlikely. we’re both sentimentalists, prone to keeping things because of the memories. we must, she says.

i point out that we have two enormous boxes of stuffed animals. refrigerator-size boxes. they’ve been sitting there for six years, still unpacked from the last move. i am skeptical she can part with any of them. she assures me yes.

as we discuss it, we stop at the truck stop near fredericksburg on the way to san angelo. mo sees a rack of stuffed animals. we can’t, i tell her. but the donkey, she sighs.

so we’re back on the road again, with eeyore along for the ride. because you can jettison stuff, but maybe always save enough space for old friends, and new ones too.

5 Responses to downsizing

We still have boxes unopened from our move from New Orleans back to Omaha. Those same boxes then went to Birmingham, back to Grand Island and now to Omaha. Mrs. TO says she will get rid of them soon. Let’s see, they have been boxed since 1984. I don’t foresee her parting with them anytime soon. To quote her, “we may need them some day”.

We’ve found the solution to the downsizing thing. Always move to significantly smaller places. Next summer will witness our third move since coming to Iowa in ’03, this time to a matchbox with minimal storage. Mrs. GR has massive boxes of Christmas decorations that will have nowhere to go.
Or perhaps we will just celebrate Christmas all year round.

Here’s the thing I’m finding about memories and the the things we hang into to reinforce those memories. Even when I find something that I stashed away years ago so I could savor it in the future I can’t remember saving the item, why I saved that item or what it meant at the time. I did find a ticket stub from 1984 for a Jackson Browne concert at Madison Square Garden which cost me $13.50. It was fun as I sorta recall but that’s about it and my thinking on memories and mementos is becoming circular as I think – I don’t remember saving this, I’m glad I did but it’s time to move on and I eventually pitch whatever I saved into the trash. Memories in the garbage- There’s a loaded line for next time.